Much like the American M2 4.2 inch mortar it was intended to deliver chemical munitions, such as gas and smoke shells.

Unlike the American weapon it appears to have had an ordinary high-explosive shell from the beginning.

It was of conventional design, and was virtually a scaled-up 8 cm GrW 34.

Initially they were deployed in Nebelwerfer battalions numbered 1 to 9, plus the Nebel-Lehr Abteilung (Demonstration Battalion) and saw service in the Battle of France and Russia during Operation Barbarossa.

This had itself been converted from 8th Battery of Artillery Regiment 222 of the 181st Infantry Division during the invasion of Norway.